Q & A Table of Contents
Is Economics Everything?
From: Nicolas, Angers, France
Question: Why are economic factors so important when you
negotiate?
Response: One of the things people often want to do when
they negotiate — and in many other situations — is to keep
score. Normally negotiations are not accompanied by a
referee or umpire who awards each negotiator points for
creativity, good planning, or other impressive maneuvers.
As a consequence, negotiators tend to look at the financial
outcomes of their negotiation activities as the ‘score’ by
which their success or failure is measured.
Some negotiations are just about money: “How much will the
souvenir shop take off its price for me?” “How little will
this new employee accept as a starting salary?”
The majority of negotiations may contain financial
elements, but the decision-making process in which the
negotiating parties share must also reflect other issues:
“How fast can you deliver the product?” “Will the service
you provide yield the results my company needs?” “What
impact might the following proposal have on your ego?”
While some of the answers to these sorts of questions can
have an economic impact, other non-financial implications
can be far more important.
The simple answer to your question is that economic factors
can be important to people who are keeping score as they
compete with other negotiators — but if the numbers are the
only factors considered, there are strong odds the
negotiators are going to miss more important factors.
Good luck,
Steve
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